


Cognitive Recalibration

by endrega_Turtlesse



Series: Amnesiac Bucky Barnes 'Verse [1]
Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Adorable Tony Stark, Amnesia, Amnesiac Bucky Barnes, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hurt Bucky Barnes, Light Angst, M/M, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Pre-World War II Bucky Barnes, Tony Stark Needs Sleep, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, it has fought its way in, obviously not compliant with anything after that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:02:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22386880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endrega_Turtlesse/pseuds/endrega_Turtlesse
Summary: Tony knows Bucky hates him. The murder-glares are a dead giveaway (pun very much intended, Clint!), right? Right.Right?
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Series: Amnesiac Bucky Barnes 'Verse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1617277
Comments: 11
Kudos: 349
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	Cognitive Recalibration

**Author's Note:**

> Name of piece: Cognitive Recalibration  
> Name of participant: endrega23  
> Card number: 3097  
> Square number and prompt: B2: Stark Tower (picture prompt), B3: Amnesia  
> Rating: Teen and Up Audiences  
> Pairing: Tony Stark / James "Bucky" Barnes  
> Warnings: no archive warnings apply  
> Summary: Tony knows Bucky hates him. The murder-glares are a dead giveaway (pun very much intended, Clint!), right? Right.
> 
> Right?

The whole team was sitting in the waiting room, waiting for the okay to swarm Barnes’ room. To be honest, Tony didn’t really want to be here. In fact, there were so many other places he could be right now – repairing his armor, for example, or upgrading Natasha’s Bites, or Clint’s body armor (how one man can fall off buildings so much will forever remain a mystery), or really, just getting the hell out of dodge – but one LookTM from Steve and here he was. Waiting for a man to wake up who despised him. Who has been reverted back to his assassin-y ways and had to be cognitively recalibrated. (First of all, fuck you, Hydra. Second of all, that is an awesome phrase, Natasha, and Tony’s borrowing it.) All of this, and all Tony had was a faulty armor. Yay.

They all looked up when a doctor entered.

“Can we go in?” Steve shot to his feet. “Is he alright?”

“His body’s stable, we’re not sure about his mind” the doctor said. “We’ll wake him up once you’re there. He’s in the third room to the left.”

Everyone scrambled to their feet (Clint holding on to his ribs and limping slightly). Steve was already down the hall, followed closely by Sam. Yeah, the man could claim what he wanted, but Tony was onto him; he actually liked Barnes, in a strange love-hate bromance sort of way. Tony lagged behind, knowing he’d get the Disapproving LookTM if he opted out, but feeling no inclination to keep vigil next to Mean-and-Frosty’s sickbed. That’s what all-American goody-ol’ captains were for, in his honest and correct opinion.

Barnes’ room was relatively spacious, for a hospital room (thank you, Stark Tower medbay), but it was still suddenly filled with six superheroes in their sweaty and gross uni-forms along with the nurses, so Tony felt justified to stay in the doorway. Or, you know, as far from the bed and as close to the only exit as possible.

One of the nurses slowly pushed a needle into Barnes’ IV. Everyone waited with bated breath as Barnes groaned. His eyes flittered open, closed, then snapped open. He looked around the room agitated, his brow furrowing, and Tony prepared himself to fight. He could see the others were mentally gearing up, too, Natasha subtly shifting a knife into her hand, Clint and Sam standing up straighter, Bruce… well, Bruce trying to become one with the wall. Even Steve braced himself, just before Barnes started talking.

“Stevie? Who are all these people? And why the hell am I strapped down?”

* * *

Bucky woke up groggy and confused. His head hurt worse than when he overindulged that night with that- oh, what was her name, Alice? Annie? He had the world’s worse hang-over the next morning, only, this time was worse. He groaned. He couldn’t remember what he did – God, he hoped he didn’t hit his head on a mission, Steve would be swallowed by guilt if Bucky injured himself on his watch. Knowing he had to get it over with, Bucky forced his eyes open, only to close them immediately. Yeah, no, that was too bright. He tried to raise his hand to block out at least some of the light, only to find he couldn’t move it. His eyes snapped open and he looked around, his heart pounding, but – yeah, no, this wasn’t Schmidt’s lab. What the hell then…? It was definitely filled to capacity with people, too, with a very sexy and deadly-looking woman, a man – Howard? No, just very similar –,two men and a couple of nurses, but also,

“Stevie? Who are all these people? And why the hell am I strapped down?”

As a whole, the room relaxed, it was like someone had popped a balloon and all the air just went whooshing out. Steve, though, frowned at him.

“Buck? You know them.”

Bucky looked around again, but nothing came to him.

“I hate to disappoint you, Stevie, but the only person I know here is you. He looks like Howard, though” he nodded towards the man in the doorway. A hella sexy one, too.

“Howard” the man stepped forward. “You think I look like dear old dad.”

Bucky frowned. “Dad? But how…? You’re…”

“Older? Yeah” Howard’s… son? nodded. “Just to be clear, what year do you think it is?”

“What year…?” Bucky screwed his eyes shut. His headache was just getting worse, and he started to get an inclination to where the man was going, and he didn’t like it one bit. He really wanted to massage his eyes, but, restrains.

“Tony’s right” the woman spoke up, ignoring the man’s (Tony’s) cry of ‘Did you hear that? She said I’m right!’. “James, what year do you think it is?”

Bucky scrunched his nose up at the name, but opened his eyes again and found Steve’s, hoping against hope. “It’s 1943. Right, punk?”

The room went silent as Steve slowly shook his head, mouthing ‘I’m sorry’. Bucky felt dread fill him, the edges of panic creeping back in. This couldn’t – could not, COULD NOT – be true, he had to be dreaming, no way, his sisters-

“I told you that you hit him too hard, Nat – ouch!”

Bucky’s eyes snapped to one of the men, tall and blond, who was massaging his arm.

“Woman, you hit too hard!” the man complained, then, seeing everyone staring at him, he quickly raised his hand. “Hey, sorry, go back to figuring this out.”

“Forget Clint,” Tony turned back to Bucky. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

Bucky frowned, trying to get back his memories. “We were in Zalipie? We kicked out some Nazis for them and they held a celebration. We were dancing – man, the Polish gals - there was this gal, I tried to hook Steve up with her. Then, it’s blank.” Bucky shook his head, frustrated. “Next thing I remember, I’m waking up here, all strapped down. By the way, could someone do something about that? My nose is starting to itch like hell.”

As Steve jumped to get the straps off, Bucky couldn’t get his eyes off Tony. He was damn gorgeous, even battered as he was. Speaking of…

“What happened? Why is everyone looking like they came out of battle? And what year is it?”

“It’s 2015” Tony said. “We look like we came out of battle because we did. You did, too. Obviously, there’s quite a bit of catching up to do here.”

At that point, just as Bucky was about to reply that he’d be glad to do any and all kinds of catching up with Tony, the last of the straps came off, he raised his left hand, and promptly had a panic attack.

* * *

Tony took upon himself to excuse himself from the explanation-fest that was sure to follow. It wasn’t that he was immune to Barnes’ plight, but, he had an armor to repair, and that was as good an excuse as any to avoid emotions. Of which there were gonna be many. Espe-cially on Steve’s part. Tony wasn’t sure whether Steve would be elated to have his old friend back, or heartbroken to have lost the last couple of months with him – hell, Steve probably didn’t know either – but Tony didn’t feel any inclination to find out. Instead, he got down to repairing his armor, then, muting JARVIS when he kept reminding him to eat and sleep. When he finished, he promptly continued with new body armor for Clint – after all, who knew when that little shit would next throw himself from a roof (yes, Clint, you were throw-ing yourself, there’s no way you accidentally fall that many times). In the middle of that, a sandwich appeared next to his hand, so he ate it. He hit send on the plans to the fabrication units and reached up to pull the schematics of the widow’s bites from the hologram above him, when a hand stopped his. He looked up and fell out of his chair. (He will deny to his dying breath that he squeaked. He did not. Anyone who claims otherwise is a lying liar who lies. That includes you, Bucky.) Barnes looked concerned.

“Are you okay, Tony? Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you, I thought you knew I was here.”

“Okay, first” Tony raised a finger and waited for the dizziness to go away. It did not. “First, what the hell are you doing in my workshop. No, scratch that, what the hell are you doing out of bed? I was told by someone with authority that Natasha’s cognitive recalibration is pretty strong. That someone’s Clint, by the way. Also, you have just been in battle, too. You should be resting. In fact, you should go back to bed. With me. Wait, no. That did not come out the way I meant it. I didn’t mean it. Okay, I totally meant it, but you’re gonna murder me one day so not. Or, okay, that’s not a bad way to go. Murdered by your very sexy team-mate.” Tony giggled, which he will also deny to his dying breath. If anything, Barnes just looked more concerned, although, maybe, a bit amused? That was better than murderous.

“Yes, Tony, I’m concerned. Also, you’re adorable, but that doesn’t make me less concerned.”

“No, I am not!” Oh, wait, did he say the bit about Bucky being murderous aloud? ‘Cause if he did, he totally didn’t mean it.

“Yes, you did. And you are. Also, I don’t know what I was like in the 21st century, but I’m not sure I like future-me if he’s making you worried about murder.”

Oh. That sounded nice. Maybe this Barnes doesn’t hate him.

“No, I don’t.” Now Barnes just sounded sad, which wasn’t right. No man so sexy should ever sound sad. Also, he was saying everything out loud, wasn’t he?

“Yes, you are” Barnes chuckled, the sad look thankfully gone. “Also, I’m glad you think I’m sexy.”

Tony opened his mouth, and then closed it again. He didn’t see much point in denying it when it was the truth. However, that left them in silence, Tony still lying awkwardly half on the floor, half on the chair’s legs. His back started to hurt, so he carefully moved to avoid worsening his dizziness, groaning. That seemed to snap Barnes out of his thoughts or wher-ever he was.

“Oh, hey, careful. You ate that sandwich but I’m guessing you hadn’t eaten much for a while before.” Tony frowned, because, yes, that could explain his dizziness.

“So that’s why I’m dizzy” he exclaimed.

Barnes had that worried look back. “That, or exhaustion” he agreed. “When did you sleep last?”

Tony tried to think back and come up with an answer that wouldn’t seem bad.

“48 hours ago, Sergeant Barnes” JARVIS said.

“Traitor!” Tony gaped up at the ceiling. “I muted you!”

“That was ten and a half hours ago, Sir. You have built in a protocol to cancel muting af-ter five hours, in case you left without doing it yourself.”

“Shoot” Tony muttered to himself.

“Come on, up you go” Barnes got an arm under his shoulders. “Let’s get you to bed.”

“Buy me dinner first” Tony quipped back automatically. “And we’re not even on first-name basis.”

Barnes laughed quietly. “We can change the second one pretty easily. Hi, Tony, I’m Bucky. As for the second one, how about I up it and make you dinner when you wake up, doll?”

Tony gaped up at Barnes- no, Bucky. “Who are you, and what did you do with Bucky Barnes?”

“I have it on good authority that Natasha’s cognitive recalibration is pretty strong, doll.”

* * *

It wasn’t like Bucky was suddenly okay with teleporting seventy years into the future (even if that’s not what happened, shut up, Tony). He is okay with not remembering the Winter Soldier, even if he still feels a tiny bit guilty. But. Back as future-Bucky, he wouldn’t have acted on his feelings for Tony in a million years. Also, Tony would have kept believing that Bucky wanted to murder him, which yes, now that it has been pointed out to him, he can admit that his I-wanna-get-you-naked-and-have-my-wicked-ways-with-you glares and his murder-glares are deceptively similar. Tony’s more trained in distinguishing them now, though, so it’s alright. And if it took Natasha’s cognitive recalibration to get them together, it has been so worth it. The box in his pocket is the proof to it.

~~He’s still a bloody good sniper, so fuck you, Clint.~~

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! I might be convinced to write a sequel, if y'all want it.


End file.
